Photo credit: VOA
For the first time in 30 years, the ruling party in South Africa, African National Congress, is set to fall short of a majority of the votes cast after national elections.
This marks the biggest political shift in the country. The party which of the respected Nelson Mandela had 41.04 % of the votes after votes from 90% of voting districts. The official opposition party, Democratic Alliance had 21.72% of the votes.
The uMkhonto weSizwe Party had 13.09% while the Economic Freedom Fighters had 9.46%.
After five years of corruption scandals and economic mismanagement by the ANC, the voters seemed to have had enough and they showed it through their votes.
The ANC will have no choice other than forming a coalition to govern the country again.
Cyrillic Ramaphosa had promised a “new dawn” when he took over the reins of government in 2018. However, the election results have shown the people’s frustration with the country’s direction.
An analyst and former ANC MP, Melanie Verwoerd said, “What we have seen is voters are unhappy with the ANC’s recent history. In particular what happened in the Zuma years and what followed on from that.”
Jacob Zuma was forced to resign as President in 2018 and served some time in jail in 2021 for contempt of court.
There are cases of rampant corruption, soaring joblessness, crippling power cuts, and feeble economic growth in the country.
South Africa has the highest rate of unemployment in the world. There is a failure of public schooling.
